Nico and the Creepypastas
by past is today
Summary: After Nico Di Angelo vanishes from camp the first time he finds himself alone in a strange woods where's he's attacked by a boy. After Nico raises a skeleton the boy get's very excited and introduces himself as Ticci-Toby, a member of a group called Creepypasta who Toby insists Nico meets.
1. Hoody and Toby

Nico stumbled through the woods, he had traveled at random after he had ran away from Percy and Camp Half Blood, now he had no idea where he was. Not that he cared, the only reason he was even aware of the woods he was in was the root he had tripped over. It had jerked him out of his own head only for a moment, he looked up at the trees surrounding him. He had never seen trees this big, they made it dark down on the forest floor where he was but he supposed as a son of Hades, he shouldn't be afraid of the dark.

He laughed and covered his own mouth with his hands. If he wasn't a son of Hades, his sister would still be alive, if he wasn't a son of Hades, he would still be able to remember his mother, if he wasn't a son of Hades, maybe she would still be alive. His laughter was replaced by strangled sobs as he started crying again, what did he have now? He couldn't go back to Camp Half-Blood and he couldn't go to his father, where else could he go? What else could he do?

He heard a snapping of branches behind him and cut off mid-sob, staying perfectly still listening to the woods around him. It was funny how quickly one learned to pay attention to their surroundings when their life depended on it. He heard a small rustling of leaves as whatever was coming snuck closer, Nico didn't turn, just listened. Suddenly the thing behind him jumped, Nico hit the deck, letting whatever it was sail over him before jumping to his feet to see what had jumped at him, drawing the sword he had been given at camp. It was too big for him, awkwardly balanced, and he still didn't know how to use it very well, but it was better than nothing.

In front of Nico was a… well it looked like a human, a male, Nico thought older, certainly taller than him. The man was wearing a pair of orange goggles, and a mouth guard that made it hard to tell anything other than that, besides that the boy had light brown hair. He was holding a pair of mismatched hatchets and staring at Nico. He didn't look like a monster to Nico, most monsters didn't have to use weapons, but then again sometimes the mist fooled even demi-gods so that might not be what this person/monster even looked like.

The other didn't speak before lunging at Nico again with the left hatchet, Nico dodged out of the way managing to block the right one with his sword. The first swing had put the person off balance, Nico pushed hard sending the stranger back. Nico lunged forward as the boy stumbled, delivering a shallow cut to the boys chest, but he didn't seem to notice. For a second Nico thought the Celestial bronze had gone through him like it would a human, but then he saw the blood.

The blood was red though, not gold like most monsters he was used to. The blood looked like a mortals blood, but the celestial bronze had been able to cut him. While Nico was distracted the other swung at Nico again, he only just managed to block it stumbling back. He took a couple extra steps as well, he wanted to talk. Maybe this person was another demi-god.

"Are you a demi-god too?" He asked the person, they remained silent but their neck twitched cracking loudly, Nico couldn't tell if it was a twitch or surprise. "You don't bleed Ichor like a monster or god but my sword cut you, it's celestial bronze..." The boy lunged at Nico again and he danced out of the way trying to stay at a distance. "...so it wouldn't have cut you if you were a mortal." The boy had paused now and was staring at Nico with his head tilted to the side, he twitched again.

"Are you crazy?" The boy asked, Nico sighed, not a demi-god, or at least not one that knew what he was. Not a monster either though, so what then? "It's okay if you are, I am too, have been ever since I killed my dad." Well the twitching made sense now at least, Nico thought as the boy twitched again.

"I don't think I'm crazy but you being crazy wouldn't explain why my sword hurt you, it doesn't hurt people, just goes right through them." Nico explained patiently. The other had left his fighting stance but Nico stayed in his, who knew how unpredictable this person would be if they admitted to being insane.

"Well I'm not, huh," The other made a small noise as he twitched again a bit more severally "Human anymore I guess really, I mean I died a little while ago I think but I just didn't go anywhere." Nico stared at the other, he really was crazy, but now that he mentioned it there was something… off about how his energies felt.

"Your soul does feel… different then other peoples." Nico admitted staring. "But my dad doesn't usually let dead people hang out up here for very long. If they don't make their way to the underworld on their own he usually sends _someone _after them." The other slid his goggles up into his hair to get a better look at Nico revealing light brown eyes.

"Your dad?" the guy asked, Nico cursed himself silently he shouldn't have mentioned it, _no one _ever wanted anything to do with him once they knew who his father was.

"Hades." He said in a resigned tone. "Greek god of the underworld." To his surprise the other's eyes widened in what seemed like delight.

"Really!?" he almost shouted his excitement making him twitch twice in quick succession as he laughed. "Your dad must either love or hate me and my friends for how many people we've sent his way!" His laugh was completely insane, and Nico knew he shouldn't, but he felt himself relaxing a little. He didn't like that he was around a murderer but still… this person's reaction was better than most peoples.

"Probably hate you." Nico said with a tiny smile, "He's always complaining about how many dead people there are and how looking after them all is a 'logistical nightmare'" The boy laughed wildly again.

"Sorry not sorry!" He yelled twitching again and bouncing up on his toes. Nico relaxed just in time for the other to lunge at him again pushing him to the ground, and raising his right axe with another laugh. Nico cried out and the other was jerked away from him by a skeletal hand that had reached out of the earth. Nico still wasn't good at controlling his powers, but obviously his panic had done something and a skeleton clawed its way out of the ground to stand between Nico and his attacker. He expected the other to run away in terror or something as Nico picked himself up off the ground.

"That's awesome!" Nico nearly fell over in pure shock at the other's exclamation. "Seriously I thought BEN and Slender's powers were good but that definitely beats what they've got!" He laughed "Jeff's gonna be so pissed he thinks he's such a hot shot with his 'go back to sleep', but you beat him by a mile. You could scare anyone with that trick! How many can you summon? Can you do Zombish rotting ones? That would be more impressive, you should try it!" The guy was twitching like crazy and Nico had no idea what he was talking about.

"What are you talking about?" Nico asked The guy was putting his hatchets back in their holsters, but Nico wasn't going to drop his guard.

"You have to come with me to meet the other Creeps! I bet old Skin Taker would love to have some more skeletons around!" He laughed still not making any sense to Nico. "Come on, they'll love you! And that explains what you're doing in Slender's woods to, if you're like that! Come on, you can bring your skeleton thing!" The guy bolted off into the woods but Nico didn't follow him.

"Hang on! I need to know who you are and what you are before I go anywhere with you!" The guy did a U-turn and ran back to where Nico was, nearly falling over as he tried to stop too quickly.

"I'm Toby." He said, Nico wondered if he ever spoke softly. "People call me Ticci-Toby because of my twitching." He twitched again just to prove it. "And I'm a creepypasta! One of Slenderman's proxies to be precise." He laughed Nico didn't know what was funny. "My Masky and Hoody. Slender sent me to get you out of his woods because Masky's busy and Hoody's too shy, but now I'm sure he'll want to meet you."

"What are creepy pastas?" Nico asked, he had never heard of it.

"We're horror story monsters!" Toby said proudly. "So most of us aren't human, BEN used to be I think, so did I, Sally and Hoddy too, he still is I think, I don't know about Masky. Slender was never human." Toby would have kept going but Nico interrupted him.

"Okay horror story monsters, why should I go with you then? That doesn't sound like a place I want to be." Toby tilted his head in confusion.

"Because you're like us, raising the dead seems like a pretty horror story monsterish to me." Nico felt like he had been kicked in the stomach, Toby was right. "But it's okay we don't hurt our own, and you already said you weren't human, we only hurt humans." He said nodding vehemently and the his head twitched to the side, Nico wondered if Toby could break his neck with those twitches. "So will you come with me now?"

"I suppose so." Nico said shrugging, he didn't have anywhere else to go, he might as well see what the Toby person was on about.

"Good!" Toby said dodging around the skeleton and grabbing Nico's wrist dragging him through the forest. Nico could feel the skeleton dragging at his energy as it jogged after them, but Nico didn't let it go. Toby had said to bring it and he didn't know how important that was, and he knew he might not be able to summon it again since he was having trouble with his powers.

The woods warped round them and a lot more quickly than Nico had expected, an old mansion came into view through the trees. As they approached it a figure came out to meet them, at first Nico couldn't see anything of it besides the yellow hoody and as it got closer, Nico realized that was pretty much all there was to see. The person's face was covered by cloth with red eyes and a red frown stitched on it, Nico stared, Toby had looked strange too though. Maybe masks and face coverings were common for these people.

"T-toby!" The asked person said sounding irritated. "You w-were supposed to take c-care of the person in the woods not b-bring them back here!" Nico took 'take care of' to mean kill, and he felt a bit nervous again, but Toby just bounced again.

"But Hooodyyy look what he can do!" Toby said waving at the skeleton "He can raise the dead! That's not a human thing he's not a human thing I think slendy will want to see him don't you? I do." Toby said it all in one breath and then inhaled sharply twitching again. Hoody's head turned toward the skeleton, though Nico couldn't tell where he was looking completely.

"You m-might be right." Hoody admitted "but Sir i-isn't here right now. "

"What!" Toby gasped "He was here when I left. But he was here when I left."

"Jeff's causing trouble again." Hoody said, he didn't stutter on that sentence, and Nico got the impression it was something he had a lot of practice saying.

"Aww!" Toby said.

"Umm excuse me, but I won't be able to keep the skeleton here much longer." Nico interjected, Toby gave a surprised twitch he must have almost forgotten Nico was there. "It takes a lot of energy to keep it here and I only figured out how to summon one recently so I don't have much practice."

Hoody nodded. "I-if both m-me and Toby t-tell Sir about it h-he'll believe, you c-can let it g-go." He stuttered more when he was talking directly Nico, he guessed it was because Hoody didn't like talking to strangers. Nico nodded cutting of the connection to the skeleton with a sigh of relief and hearing the clatter of bones as it collapsed behind him.

"So what do we do till the old man comes back?" Toby asked impatiently turning to Nico "Do you wanna fight again!?"

"Not really, I'm tired from sustaining the skeleton." Nico glanced at Hoddy but his head was angled towards the ground and he didn't seem inclined to speak again.

"Damn." Toby said frowning. "And Slendy wouldn't want me to show you around until he sees you ummm, I guess we could just talk." He didn't sound convinced.

"K-know more will h-help." Hoody put in quietly.

"Okay." Tobby said "Let's go sit some place!" he ran off and Nico had to jog to keep up with Hoody right behind him.

"Is Toby always like this?" Nico asked Hoody and Hoody nodded still looking at the ground. Nico didn't press him to speak. Toby stopped suddenly by the shores of a pond and plopped down.

"You should tell Hoody the Demi-god stuff, he'll want to hear that stuff." Hoody sat down slowly beside Toby and angled his face toward Nico, he sat down next to Hoody. Hoody seemed calmer then Toby, maybe he was less likely to suddenly attack.

"Well umm, I don't know that much really, I didn't find out that long ago but I'm a demi-god, half god I mean. My mother was human, my father was Hades the Greek god of the dead and the underworld, that's why I can call on the dead." Hoody nodded but didn't say anything, Nico wished he could see Hoody's face and know his reaction.

"Are there lots of other Demi-gods?" Toby asked without looking at Nico, Toby seemed to be looking for rocks to throw into the lake.

"I wouldn't say there were lots, but there are more. No other children of Hades though, I had a sister but she. She." Nico couldn't finish, he swallowed and looked down at the ground. Toby had fallen still for the first time and was staring at the water blankly.

"Ya, mine too." Proving he was capable of speaking softly, no one spoke for a moment, Nico and Toby stared at the water, Hoody at the ground. "Any other family?" Toby asked after a couple minutes where they both thought of their sisters.

"Just Hades." Nico said shrugging and smiling bitterly. "And it's hardly like he counts, he's always too busy running the land of the dead to pay any attention to me." It was hard not to sound angry, if he had wanted to Hades could have stopped Bianca's death.

"My mom's alive." Toby said shrugging. "But she called the cops on me as soon as I killed my dad so I'm guessing she doesn't want to see me anymore." Nico nodded, unsure of what to say. "But it's okay!" Toby said twitching back into action with a grin and grabbing Hoody. "I've got Hoody here and the rest of the creeps!" He ruffled where Hoody's hair must be hidden and Hoody tried to push him off, after a moment Toby let go.

"That's more than I have." Nico said nodding encouragingly at Toby.

"What do you mean?" Toby asked frowning.

"Well there is a camp for Demi-god kids but it's arranged according to who your 'godly parent is'. Hades doesn't even have a cabin because they don't want his kids around, we're bad luck, we bring death with us wherever we go." Nico pulled up his legs and crossed his arms over them. "If I stayed there I would have had no where to live and no one wants me there anyway."

"That's how the outside world feels about all of us too, sounds like you'll fit in here just fine." Toby said, Nico was surprised again and raised his eyebrows.

"Even if I plan to never kill anyone on purpose?" He asked curiously.

"Even if you don't want to kill anyone." Toby said laughing "Though I don't know why you wouldn't it's fun!" Nico made a small noncapital noise, he didn't think so.

"I d-don't like k-killing people." Hoody commented suddenly.

"Ya but you do it anyway." Toby pointed out and Hoody shrugged. "Still he's right and you're nobody's proxy so no ones gonna make you." Hoody nodded crossing his legs.

"Okay." Nico said, he kind of liked these people. He knew maybe he shouldn't hang around with murderers but who else wouldn't care that he was a child of death? Hell these people seemed to like him better because of it. "So what should I expect from meeting this Slenderman?" he asked, if he was planning on sticking around it seemed he would need Slender to like him.

"Be polite." Hoody advised and then Toby picked up.

"Ya polite, and don't run away, you might want to he's kinda big and weird looking but don't do it. If your head hurts stay calm, other than that let us do most of the talking and answer any questions he directs to you." Big and weird look wasn't a very helpful description, but the rest of the advice the two had given would be helpful. Nico wondered what they meant by if his head hurt. Sudden static in his head made him jump, Toby did as well leaping up to his feet.

"That's Slender back! He'll be here. Oh there he is." Nico spun around and looked up, and up and up. He really was big, well, tall and thin and, ahh that's what they meant by weird looking. Faceless. Nico swallowed hard and froze watching the tentacles coming out of the beings back waving in agitation as Hoody got up and bowed slightly.

_Children who is this? _The voice was inside Nico's head instead of the air around him and he shivered.


	2. Nico Gets a Cat

him and he shivered.

_"I thought I told you to get rid of the intruder, not bring him back and have a heart to heart". _The creature called slenderman continued crossing it's arm and tapping one foot. The static in Nico's head grew. Now he knew what they had meant by his head hurting, it was hard to remain calm as they had instructed though. Nico was glad he hadn't tried to stand up, because he was pretty sure he would have fallen again if he had.

"But Slendyyy he's cool! He raised a skeleton while we were fighting. I thought you'd want to meet anyone who could raise the dead, so I brought him back with me. He brought the skeleton too, Hoodie saw it too but Nico said it was making him to tired to keep it around so it's a pile of bones in the front yard now."

_"Hoody is this true?" _Slenderman asked turning to Hoody who nodded silently. "_Hmm you may have been correct Toby, the ability to raise the dead is a very interesting power. Child, how did you come by this ability?" _The static in Nico's head subsided to a low level of interference as he looked up at Slenderman, getting up slowly.

"My father is Hades, the Greek god of the dead and the underworld. Theoretically I should be able to raise the dead to serve me any time I want, but I only found out about my ability a little while ago so I don't have much practice." Nico was on his feet, though he wasn't sure that it was a good idea he kept, since he might fall at any moment if the static started again. He kept his center of gravity low, Slenderman made him feel small and more powerless than any other monster he had faced, he hoped he wouldn't have to fight because he doubted he would even stand a chance. 

_"Ahhh a demi-god, I've run across a few of your kind in my time, none that could raise the dead though. In fact I don't believe I've met any being that had the power to raise the dead without any sort of ceremony. Do you think you could show me how you do it child, or are you to weak from your earlier excursions? _Nico was about to answer when Toby piped up suddenly.

"What? You knew about these Demi-god things before? Why didn't you tell us about them, they'd be fun to fight! I know Jeff would _love _a challenge! So would L.J". Nico was pretty sure that Toby would have kept going, but at that point one of Slenderman's tentacles snapped out and wrapped around Toby's waist, lifting him into the air making the rest of his words turn into a not at all scared "WEEEEE!"

_"Quiet, Toby, I'm trying to speak with your new friend." _Toby didn't answer, he was too busy giggling as he swung from Slenderman's tentacle. Slender had obviously known what he was doing, because now Toby seemed to be having too much fun to interrupt. Slender then turned his attention back to Nico.

"I could try." Nico said slowly. "It may not go as I want though, it doesn't work sometimes if I'm tired." It worked almost always when Nico was panicking, but he didn't want to mention that. He was pretty sure Slenderman would have no trouble trying to kill Nico if it would yield the results he wanted.

_"Please do give it an attempt." _Slenderman said nodding encouragingly and the static faded. Nico wasn't sure if that meant Slender had decided not to kill him, or just didn't want to distract him. Either way, Nico was grateful for the quiet inside his head as he reached into the earth with his power feeling for the dead things under him. It wasn't hard to find them, there were plenty of dead under the ground here. Mostly murdered unsurprisingly around a mansion full of murderers. Nico bit his lip, none of the dead here wanted to answer him.

"You've got a very contrary bunch around here. They're mad, they don't want to do anyone any favors. They're doing their best to ignore me since I don't have an offering." Nico grumbled spreading his fingers, his eyes became unfocused as he ordered the dead to stop ignoring him and answer. There was a slight growl of protest in the earth. It made Hoody stumble, but Nico didn't notice, he had found one of the dead willing to answer him. It wasn't human, but he hoped it would be enough. He called again and a small crack opened in the earth, the skeleton of a cat leapt out and the earth closed behind it.

The cat looked over Slenderman with it's empty eye sockets seeming very unimpressed. It gave Hoody and Toby a once over as well before walking over to Nico, rubbing it's bony body against his legs. Nico sighed and reached down to the cat and scooped it up in his arms. The cat began purring and dug its claws into his sleeve. Nico sighed, he had never understood how skeleton cats always seemed able to make noise, none of the other skeletons did. Of course they didn't, they didn't have lungs, neither did the cats.

"Ow!" Nico said wincing as the cat's claws went through his jacket and into his arm. "Couldn't you have left your claws in the grave? You don't have pads to cover them anymore you know, and that hurts." The cat just purred louder and kneaded its claws deeper into his skin. Nico winced and grimaced, if the cat was unimpressed by Slenderman it certainly wasn't going to listen to a skinny kid.

_"Interesting." _Slenderman said nodding "_Yes very interesting. Toby was very right to bring you back. I've never encountered a power that works quite like yours, and I'd like to help you learn more about it. Please stay as long as you like, we have plenty of spare rooms in the house, Toby and Hoody will help you find one to your taste." _Slendy put Toby back down and Toby stumbled evidently dizzy from his ride in Slender's tentacles, Hoody nodded.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Slenderman, but I have to warn you I have intention of becoming one of you… creepypastas? I don't like hurting people, and my father would be mad at me if I gave him any extra work to do by killing anyone." Nico said still cradling the cat, now that it was out of the ground it was showing little intention of going back in. For now it was easy enough to keep it around.

_"That is fine child." _Slenderman answered nodding down at Nico. "_However I must warn you there are some here that you will have to show you are not to be trifled with. Hoody and Toby will tell you who to watch for I'm sure."_ There was another small burst of static and Slenderman was gone.

"So you s-staying?" Hoody asked his covered face angled toward Nico.

"I guess I am." Nico said with a shrug. "I don't have anywhere else to go." He might as well stay, these people were comfortable with him, perfectly at ease with death and he was already starting to like Hoody and Toby. He wondered if the rest would be like them. Or more like Slenderman. Or their own things entirely. He was equally part afraid and excited to meet them.

"Cool!" Toby said doing a funny little twitching dance. Nico was sure that Toby wanted to grab his wrist and run off again, but couldn't due to the cat in Nico's arms. "Come on then! Lets go find you a room, we should start introducing you to everyone too before dinner so you don't have to meet them all at once."

"Eyeless Jack." Hoody said to Toby, Nico didn't understand what that meant at all but apparently Toby did.

"Oh right, thanks for reminding me! On the topic of dinner you should be warned that Eyeless Jack is a cannibal. So when you see what's on his plate at dinner, try not to freak out too much." Toby had started moving toward the mansion and Nico followed, he felt a little sick when he heard about 'Eyeless Jack', but he had already agreed to stay and there was no backing out now. "He's one of the people Slender meant about 'showing you're not to be trifled with' or whatever. E.J. didn't know about Demi-gods anymore than we did, so he'll probably want to see if you taste any different than normal humans.

"It's not like having to fight him is a unusual thing though. Everyone but Slenderman, Smiling Dog, and Laughing Jack have had to hit E.J. over the head, shouting "No you can't eat me!" at some point or another. Even BEN and I'm pretty sure BEN doesn't even have a real physical form since he spends most of his time in a computer game."

"Okay well that's reassuring." Nico said sarcastically. Hoody gave a small laugh but Toby didn't seem to notice. He was impatient with how slow Nico and Hoody were going.. Nico wondered if he might start running in circles around them like a dog. "Who else do I need to look out for?" Nico asked before Toby could get distracted again.

"Jeff." Toby said immediately. "For the first couple months you're here keep your window locked! Door too and put something noisy in front of it, so no one can open it and sneak in." Nico and Hoody sped up a little to accommodate Toby, creating a compromise they could both live with without Nico and Hoody getting out of breath, or Toby going crazy. This speech was not making Nico feel very safe, but he supposed it was better to know so he could avoid these problems.

"D-don't worry." Hoody said softly seeming to notice Nico's unease. "S-Sally, L.J., and M-Mask should be fine with you since S-sir says you're okay. And M-me and Toby l-like you." Nico relaxed a little smiling at Hoody. Nico didn't know if Hoody meant it yet, but it was nice of Hoody to say. By now they had reached the mansion, the front door opened into a big room, with the many smaller hallways branching off of it. Nico got the impression this place would be hard not to get lost in.

"You'll l-learn your way around ev-eventually." Hoody said quietly under Toby's chatter. Toby wasn't saying anything important at the moment, so Nico tuned him out in favor of Hoody's quiet comments. Toby bolted up a staircase. Nico and Hoody followed slowly, Hoody leaning on the banister slightly, Nico walking in the middle still carrying the purring skeleton cat. At the top of the stairs they went down one hall, turned left and down another, at the end of that one they turned right.

"This is the hall where most of us have bedrooms. We don't want them too close to the stairs because sometimes humans stumble in and start opening doors, and that's not nice to wake up to." Toby explained. "This one if Jeff's." Toby pointed at one of the doors at the front of the hall on the right side. "The one at the very end is Sally's room. Hoody and Mask share that one because Hoody doesn't like being alone. Oof." Hoody had elbowed him and then covered his already covered face with gloved hands. Toby just laughed.

"I sleep in the room next to theirs. You should sleep in the one next to mine, that way Jeff would have to pass our rooms to get to you. ...And it's always good to be close enough to hear each other if we need help." Nico didn't think there was any point in arguing with Toby as he went and opened the door to the room he thought Nico should have. Nico followed Toby in and found it was a nice room, darker than most bedrooms, mostly done in red and black with dark wood and heavier curtains on the window than was normal. But Nico wasn't a fan of being woken up with the sun anyway.

"This will be fine." Nico said nodding approvingly, the bed was big too, old looking four poster, the desk, chair, and bookshelf against one wall looked old too. Nico wondered how long the mansion and all its furnishings had been here. The cat mewed to be let down and Nico dropped it, even dead cats landed on their feet without hurting themselves. The cat landed on it's paws with a louder noise than was usual for cats, since it didn't have any flesh to muffle it's landing. The cat gave a disgruntled mew, then wandered over to the bed, jumping up on it the cat curled into a ball and started purring again.

"You're cat seems to agree." Toby said happily "Good now we should show you around a bit! Let's go." Toby was about to grab Nico's arm and drag him off again, but Hoody put one hand on Toby's arm as he reached, pushing it back down.

"W-we should give him some t-time to settle himself in. W-we can show him around l-later." He told Toby firmly then looked at Nico again. "In an hour?" He asked and Nico nodded, he was glad Hoody had done that. He didn't think he could take in much more information before he had been given time to process what he already had. Hoody nodded as well and then dragged Toby out, Nico could hear Toby protesting all the way down the hall but Nico just went and closed the door after them.

Once that was done Nico went and sat on the bed looking around the room again , it needed to be dusted. He supposed no one had used it for a while but he could do that later. Getting up from the bed (the cat gave a muffled meow of protest at the shifting) Nico crossed to the window and opened the curtain. It was a big window and it would let in plenty of light when Nico wanted it, this room could be as bright or gloomy as he wanted. Nico stood at the window for another moment wondering which one he would choose, then he closed the curtain again with a small smirk.

He went over to the bookshelf and looked at the titles. It was the one thing in the room that didn't seem to need any dusting at all, someone in this house cared for books. Old books, none of which seemed very interesting to Nico until he found one about mythology from around the world. His hand hesitated over it for a moment, he loved mythology, or at least the game he had played about mythology. Maybe it was time to learn more about the myths that game was based on, and the one his life was quickly turning into.

He didn't want to read it right now though, instead he put it on the small table next to the bed after he had wiped the dust off it with his sleeve, to read later when he had more time. Once that was done he sat down on the bed next to the cat again and ran the tips of his fingers over the bumps of the cats spine feeling it vibrate with a purr. Well this had been a very strange day and it was promising to get stranger, Nico thought he might like to keep the cat around for a while. It took much less energy than a human, and with all the craziness that was going on it would be nice to have some sort of comfort. Even if that was a skeleton cat, it still purred and nuzzled his hand with it's nose.

Carefully he moved the cat into his lap, it made a small noise of disgust at being moved. Nico was worried it would get up and leave again right away but after a moment of consideration it laid down on his lap. Smiling Nico kept petting the cat as he ran over what he had been told already, so this house was home to people called Sally, Smiling Dog, Jeff, L.J. and E.J. (he would have a hard time keeping those two names straight) Masky, Hoody, BEN, Toby and Slenderman. If there was anyone else Nico didn't remember them or they hadn't been mentioned yet. Slenderman seemed to be in charge so since Nico was okay with Slender everyone else should be fine with him, although he did need to keep an eye on E.J. and Jeff.

Nico sighed flopping back on the bed and staring at the canopy, this was all a little insane. He supposed it was easier to believe things like these people existed after finding out that all the Greek monsters and gods were real, maybe that's why he was having as little trouble processing it as he was. He half wished that he had lt Toby drag him away to meet the others right away. Now Nico was anxious to see what type of people, or beings they were, but he knew it wouldn't be smart to try and find them on his own so he waited for Toby and Hoody to come back for him.

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><p>Next chapter I think I'm going to add my OC because whatever dudes it's my story! That being said if I get a overwhelming negative response I'll leave her out.<p> 


	3. When are you From?

Roughly an hour later there was a knock on Nico's door. A loud quick one. He guessed it was Toby even before he went to open it. Unsurprisingly he had been right. Toby wasn't wearing his mouth guard or goggles anymore and that was a bit surprising, more so because of the scar on one side of Toby's mouth. It was more than a scar really, Nico could see a couple of Toby's teeth through it. He wondered if that made it hard for Toby to eat.

"You ready to go?" Toby said skipping back, he either hadn't noticed Nico staring at the scar, or he was used to it, Nico suspected the latter. Nico nodded, yes he was ready to go, or as ready as he would ever be, he was still nervous. "Good! First introductions already here." Toby said waving someone who had been hidden in the shadows forward.

"This is Masky, the other one of Slenders Proxies." The man was taller the Toby and wearing a white mask with black lips, wide black eyes and arched eyebrows painted on it. Hoody was close behind Masky, as if drawn to him by a magnet. Masky nodded regarding Nico carefully, Nico could barely see the wide blue eyes behind the mask but he could feel them on him.

"Don't mind him, he doesn't like the entire idea of 'trusting'. Well anyone besides Hoody, not even me." Toby said waving a hand in a shooing motion and giving an overdramatic pout.

"It's nice to meet you Masky." Nico said stepping forward and holding out his right hand to shake, at first he thought Masky was going to refuse. Then Hoody elbowed him gently and Masky sighed and gripped Nico's hand a little too tightly, giving it a shake before letting go again quickly. Nico retracted his hand raising one eyebrow quizzically then shrugged. Hoody and Toby hadn't said he needed to watch out for Masky and until proven wrong he would trust their word.

"We've already told Masky about you so lets go meet the others! Jeffs confined to his room for now and I think Sally and L.J. are out playing in the woods, so we'll start with BEN, he's downstairs." Toby started down the hall to the stairs, Nico waiting for a moment not wanting to have his back to Masky, but Masky showed no signs of going ahead.

"I-it's okay. Go." Hoody said waving Nico to go ahead. Nico sighed and did, he listened to the footsteps of the two behind him, they were so quiet. He probably wouldn't have noticed them if he wasn't listening for them. Nico would have to learn that trick, he could think of many, many more ways it would be useful than just to sneak up on people to kill them.

They followed Toby back down the three corridors to the stairs, and then down to the ground floor again. Nico tried to keep track of where he was being lead, but all the doors and halls looked the same to him and he soon got lost. He suspected finding ones way around this house involved more remembering to count how many doors you passed than looking for landmarks. He would count on the way back since it would be useless to start half way through now .

Toby finally stopped outside of a room, he knocked on the door. There was no answer, Toby knocked again. When there was still no answer Nico assumed they would have to leave again, but Toby just walked in. Unsure of what to do Nico followed him in and looked around what seemed to be just an office. There was a laptop on the desk and a few gaming systems against the wall, he assumed that's what they were, he had heard of them but never seen one. Nico got even more confused when Toby marched over to one of the game systems and knocked on it, there was no response unsurprisingly and Toby knocked again.

"Come on BEN it's almost dinner time this is not the time for a nap! Besides we brought a new member of the household to come meet you." Nico remembered something about BEN spending most of his time in a game, but he still didn't believe anything would happen until the thing turned on on it's own. A text box showed up on the blackness of the screen.

**Go Away! **Said the text box and the thing started to shut down again before Toby started poking it this time.

"Not till you come out and introduce yourself!" Toby said, the atmosphere darkened and Nico had the distinct impression that BEN was about to do something.

"Slenderman said to introduce him." Masky interrupted the climb of energy in the room, it hovered at the same level for a moment before the speakers let out a burst of static that, sounded oddly like a sigh and the energy vanished. The screen on the game turned white and after a moment someone began to push their way out of it. After a moment a boy with a green hat, blond hair, and a green tunic type thing was standing on the floor in front of them. He looked fairly normal despite having just come out of a game, until he opened his eyes. Nico repressed the urge to step back when he saw that the area that should have been white was black and the pupil was red. Blood began to slide down the boys face from his eyes and Nico shivered.

"What did you want?" BEN asked, Nico could still hear a low level of interference under BEN's voice as if he was talking through a speaker.

"It's nice to meet you BEN, my name is Nico Di Angelo." Nico took the initiative introducing himself to the… person? Video game character? For now just BEN. "I'm a son of the Greek god Hades, Slenderman wants to know more about how my powers work, so for now I'll be living here." BEN reached out to shake Nico's hand, but as soon as they touched it was like Nico had touched a live wire and electricity was running through his arm, Nico pulled away quickly, BEN grinned.

"So what can you do that's caught the old man's attention?" Ben asked still grinning, Nico didn't like that smile. BEN looked like he was dissecting every aspect of Nico's mind, wondering how best to drive him insane, and BEN was enjoying every minute of it. Nico didn't look away, he had to hold eye contact to prove he would not be BEN's prey because Nico had seen enough monsters to know what a predators stare looked like.

"I can raise the dead." Nico answered calmly still holding eye contact. "I might be able to do more I only found out about my powers recently."

"Huh that's pretty impressive death boy." BEN said shifting his weight to his other foot. "Now when are you from?"

"Pardon?" he was shocked though he tried not to show it, he hadn't mentioned to any of them that he wasn't from this time. BEN smirked, obviously Nico hadn't done such a good job of hiding his surprise.

"When are you from?" BEN repeated slowly still smirking. "There's no mention of you on the internet, with records beginning to be digitized if you were born when you look like you should have been I would have found you by now. When are you from?"

"You don't have to answer him." Nico had almost forgotten the Proxies were there, Toby was almost never quiet for this long and even now it had been Masky that spoke. He was glaring at BEN. "He's just trying to play one of his games, best not to let him inside your head. He'll never leave."

"Aww, Masky were you given orders to spoil my fun?" BEN whined but his smirk didn't slip. "Or are you just jealous that I'm still free to play my own games, and don't have to be a pawn in anyone else's?" Nico saw Masky stiffen and he decided he didn't like Ben much. For a moment Nico thought that Masky would attack BEN, but then Hoody rested his head on Masky's shoulder and Masky relaxed.

"Slenderman wants Nico here, if you drive him away then you'll have to answer to Slender." Masky warned BEN ignoring what he had said before. Masky was taking his own advice not to let BEN into his head. Nico made up his mind that he would follow Masky's advice as well if Masky trusted it enough to follow it.

"Fine." BEN said crossing his arms and scowling. "Now are you done? I was in the middle of something." Nico nodded and looked at Masky who nodded as well. "Good." BEN grumbled and slid back into the game system, once he was in it turned off with an annoyed snapping sound.

Mask turned and left the room immediately, Hoody tapped Ticci-Toby on the shoulder bringing him out of the trance he had been in, staring at the wall and muttering soundlessly. So that was why he hadn't interrupted before. Toby jumped and dashed after Mask, Hoody waited for Nico to go first but Nico didn't mind having Hoody at his back so he went.

"If you start having nightmares about a statue that looks kind of like BEN, but with blue eyes, or about your legs being sewn together and a mask sewn to your face let us know." Masky said suddenly as soon as they were out of the room. "It's one of his little tricks to drive people crazy, if Slender finds out he's doing it to someone in the house he takes away BEN's access to the internet for a few days."

"Okay I'll keep that in mind." Nico said grimacing, as a demi-god he had enough nightmares on his own without help from any help from sarcastic computer programs.

"Ya, the only time BEN is bearable is when you're playing videogames with him, and even then it has to be video games that aren't Majora's Mask. Try playing Mario Kart with him some time, that can be fun and it'll get you in his good books." Toby said fully back to reality, though still a bit more subdued than Nico had come to expect. Nico nodded, he had never played video games before, he had no clue how they worked, but with how some of the other kids had talked about them at camp Nico thought he would like them.

"Alright, who am I supposed to meet next?" Nico said, he hoped the others (besides Jeff and E.J.) were more like the proxies than BEN. Nico wasn't sure how many sadistic video game characters he could stand.

"Let's go outside and try to find Sally and L.J.!" Toby suggested enthusiastically. "Smiling Dog will probably be with them, so that's killing three birds with one stone!"

"That's a good idea Toby." Mask said in a tone of over exaggerated surprise, Toby stuck his tongue out petulantly at Masky before running off. Masky followed Toby, and this time Mask fell back to walk with Nico at the back of the party. They walked in silence as Masky and Toby started fighting, but the silence with Hoody wasn't awkward at all. Nico didn't feel any pressure to make conversation and he knew Hoody didn't either, so they let the quiet stand. Nico counted the doors to the exit this time and got to eleven, this was a big house.

When they got out of the house Toby sprinted into the woods. Nico expected they would follow Toby and was surprised when Mask just sat down on the doorstep. Hoody sat down on the ground in front of Masky but Nico decided to stay standing, he didn't really know what was happening. They stayed that way as they waited for Toby to come back, Hoody and Masky seemed to be staying unnaturally still, Nico fidgeted shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

After maybe five minutes Toby came sprinting back out of the woods laughing madly with a dog at his heals, the dog was panting happily and snapping playfully at Toby's heals. Toby didn't seem to mind even though there was a couple of places on his legs Nico could see blood. Toby kept laughing and dancing around to avoid the dogs snapping… human teeth. The dog stilled when it saw Nico and stopped panting, but still it's lips were drawn back in an unnaturally large smile even for a dog and it's teeth were definitely human.

Nico shivered, so this was smiling dog, it seemed to act like a normal dog but as it growled at Nico, he felt a little sick. It wasn't a natural thing to see a dog with human teeth like that, even though it didn't really seem like it should be, it was scary. Hoody stood up and stepped forward to meet the dog, ruffling it's pointed ears.

"This is Nico." Hoody told the dog kneeling down to it's level and gesturing for Nico to come over. Nico swallowed and went over, the dogs ears pricked and it stared at Nico. Nico tried not to let his fear show, he had heard somewhere that animals could sense it. He held out his hand and the dog sniffed it, most animals ran away from Nico because he felt like danger and death to them but this dog seemed interested. After a minute a sniffing the dog licked Nico's hand and he relaxed, Nico ran his hand over the soft fur of the dogs head then straightened as two more figures came out of the woods.

One was a little girl with long brown hair and green eyes, she was wearing nightdress that had either been pink and had bleach spilled on it, or had been white and had blood spilled on it. From the pattern Nico suspected the latter. She was dragging someone much taller behind her, a hunched monochrome clown with a large sharp-toothed grin. The girl, Sally he assumed, was chattering happily to the clown and the clown, L.J. laughed. The clown was so big that Sally could only get her hand around one of the clowns long, knife like fingers, but Sally didn't seem to mind and the clown followed readily.

"Sally, L.J., this is Nico." Toby said making a motion like he was presenting Nico, Nico felt very uncomfortable as the two stared at him. Sally let go of L.J.'s finger and clutched a bear to her chest with both arms, staring at Nico with wide eyes over the bears head. It was hard for Nico to believe that the little girl could be a killer, she looked so small and innocent, but there was blood all over her dress. Nico very much doubted it was her own, besides she lived here and apparently everyone here except him was a killer.

"It's very nice to meet you, L.J." Nico said to the clown first then smiled gently at Sally. "And you too Sally."


	4. Dead Blood

Laughing Jack reached out one of his long fingered hands and shook Nico's offered one, he didn't hold very tightly but that was just as well since his fingers seemed to be as sharp as knives. Nico surprised, shivered, and L.J. gave a rusty sounding giggled before letting go of Nico. Nico reached out to Sally to shake her hand too, at first she half hid behind L.J. but after glancing at Hoody, and receiving an encouraging nod she crept out giving Nico's hand a quick shake before letting go again.

"So where's the new one come from?" L.J. asked Masky as if Nico wasn't there, his voice sounded like metal screeching on metal.

"Can we play with him?" Sally asked in a small voice that sounded just like a regular little girls. Nico was about to say that he could answer for himself and of course they could play when Masky cut him off.

"Toby found him in the woods, and Slenderman wants to know more about him. Since Slenderman wants him around you can only play _non-violent _games, understand Sally? Or at least non-lethal if you play with him like you play with humans, uncle Slendy will be very upset with you." Nico was annoyed for a moment to have Masky speaking for him but then he was glad Masky had. It sounded like if Nico had said he would play with Sally without conditions he would have ended up dead.

"Awww but that's no fun." L.J. eyeing Nico as Sally pouted for a moment. Nico stood his ground and stared back at L.J, he would fight the clown if he had to. L.J. seemed to realize because after a few silent tense minutes he shrugged. "He's almost too old for your games anyway, if the old man wants him then whatever." Nico wondered what age L.J. liked for his 'games'.

"Do you like hide and seek?" Sally asked seeming to warm up to him as L.J. did.

"I love hide and seek." Nico agreed once he glanced at Masky to make sure it was safe. "Just to warn you I'm really good at it, I kind of disappear into shadows by accident sometimes when I try to hide." Sally perked up squeezing her teddy even tighter and bouncing up on her toes.

"Oh no, you can't run off with him right now, Sally." Masky intercepted her apparently next action. "He still needs to meet E.J. before dinner. Do either of you know where he is?" Sally shook her head and L.J. shrugged he seemed bored.

"Can he play with me once he's met E.J.?" Sally asked innocently, Masky nodded and Sally smiled. "Then I'll help you look for him!" She glanced at L.J. who shook his head and wandered back into the woods. Sally didn't bother watching L.J., running over to Nico she grabbed the hem of his shirt and started dragging him towards the mansion. Nico glanced back to make sure that Masky and Hoody were following, before relinquishing control to the little girl in the blood stained dress.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING WAIT FOR ME!" Nico had nearly forgotten about Ticci-Toby as he heard pounding feet and panting rushing up behind them. Nico glanced back just in time to pull Sally back as Toby, tried to stop too fast and face-planted right were Sally had been standing. His arms were stretched in front of him, Nico doubted he had even tried to break his fall and as Sally burst out laughing he understood why. Masky laughed to and even Hoodie gave a small chuckle, Nico didn't join in laughing but he did smile slightly. It looked like L.J. wasn't the only clown.

Toby pushed himself up grinning, there was a little bit of blood trickling from his nose but Toby hadn't noticed, there hadn't been a crunching noise so it wasn't broken and no one bothered to tell him. The nosebleed would either stop or Toby would notice when the blood got in his mouth, either way no harm done.

"We're going looking for E.J. so we can play hide and seek!" Sally informed Toby starting to drag Nico again so forcefully that he stumbled, she was very strong for her size.

"Oh okay, but why hide and seek? Hiding is boring you have to stay still for ever!" Toby said getting to his feet and walking on Sally's other side. "Why not tag?"

"Because you always win that game and it's not fair." Sally said pouting at Toby. "The only way you lose is if uncle Slendy plays with us and he hardly ever does."

"Ya that's why I like it!" Toby said laughing and giving a larger than normal twitch, Nico had already stopped noticing Toby's twitches, they were almost constant and hardly worth noting anymore.

"That's mean Toby!" Sally said pouting . "No, I wanna play hide and seek! You don't have to play if you don't want to! Nico agreed to play with me, and Masky, and Hoody, that's enough people for a game without you!" She hadn't asked Masky and Hoody but they didn't object. They had reached the stairs now and Nico gently untangled Sally's hand from his shirt so that he wouldn't get dragged up the stairs. Once they were inside Sally paused and looked at Masky expectantly.

"Were should we look for E.J. first?" She asked.

"The infirmary." Masky decided after a moment. "I think he had to fix up Jeff when he got back, so he'll probably be in there cleaning." Nico braced himself for Sally to grab him again but this time she went over to Hoody instead and lifted her arms like she wanted to be picked up.

"Piggyback ride?" She half asked half demanded, Nico suspected that either would have the same effect because Hoody wouldn't say no to her. Sure enough he crouched down so she could clamber onto his back, and stood back up bouncing her slightly to settle her more comfortably. She giggled happily and Nico noticed as they started walking again that Hoody walked with more of a bounce in his step to make Sally laugh. Hoody was good with kids it seemed.

The infirmary was on the ground floor on the other side of the house, not far enough that Hoody had to ask Sally to get down. Which was good because Sally was clinging to him with arms and legs and showing no intention of letting go. The first thing that Nico noticed when the door to the infirmary was opened was a strong smell, it was metallic and tangy. It was similar to blood but just a little bit… darker seemed the best word, Nico remembered that E.J. was the one they had said was a cannibal, the one he would real have to look out for.

The second thing Nico noticed was E.J. himself, he was standing with his back to them cleaning blood off of what looked like an old hospital table. From the back he looked completely human, wearing a hoodie like all of the proxies but his hood was down revealing tousled, staticy brown hair. It wasn't till he turned around that Nico realized why he was called Eyeless Jack, Nico was glad they had waited till last to show him E.J. or he might have reacted badly.

E.J. wore a mask similar to Masky's, but unlike Masky's it was blue, also unlike his, the eyeholes were open to wear his eyes should have been. Should have been being the main phrase, because they weren't there, where his eyes should have been were only black pits. There was some sort of blackness leaking from them, dead infected blood Nico suspected, that was probably part of the smell. As Nico watched E.J. reached into his hoodie and pulled out a black cloth, using it to wipe some of the blackness from his face before it could drip to the floor. Nico felt a little sick as he realized that the cloth had probably used to be a white handkerchief, now stained completely Black.

"E.J. Uncle Slendy brought a new friend!" Sally slid down from Hoodies back and ran over to E.J. "His name is Nico! He's gonna play hide and seek with me, do you want to play too?" She grabbed the hem of E.J.'s hoody and E.J. put the cloth back in his pocket before resting one surprisingly delicate hand on Sally's head.

"No I don't think I will Sally, sorry. As usually Jeff has made a mess, he doesn't approve of having to answer to Slenderman about anything, so as usually he has taken out his frustration on my things." E.J. waved at the spill. Nico noticed for the first time that there were shards of glass in it and something else. Small darker lumps, some for of flesh, an organ he suspected, Nico felt sick. Of course they were human that was probably what he ate. "So I'll have to go into a city tonight to get more, that only made Jeff angrier of course because he's forbidden to come with me."

"I'll go with you." Toby said slipping past Nico and into the room. E.J. gave a sigh and seemed to be about to say something but Toby cut him off. "Sally's already claimed Hoody and Masky for her games tonight so you can't have them." Toby smirked, obviously E.J. preferred the other two proxies. E.J. sighed again but he nodded accepting that he would have to make due with Toby.

"Now, this 'new friend' Slenderman has brought. Come closer please, Nico was it? Unsurprisingly my vision isn't very good." Nico swallowed he didn't want to go closer really, but it was obvious that E.J.'s vision wouldn't be very good. Nico was honestly surprised he had any at all, but Nico didn't want to be rude. He tried not to hesitate as he went closer but he stayed tense, ready to fight if he needed to. So far E.J. had seemed rather tame and even polite, but Sally had been enough to warn Nico that first appearances meant nothing.

As Nico got closer he noticed that in addition to looking at him E.J. was also sniffing the air subtly like a dog. He must rely on scent as well as sight to make up for the lack of the second one, though how he could smell anything over the smell of whatever had spilt on the ground was a mystery to Nico. Nico stopped a couple arms lengths away from E.J. he hoped it would be close enough because he really didn't want to get any closer, E.J. seemed content with it and observed Nico for a few more quite tense minutes.

"You don't smell like most of the humans I've encountered. Like any human in fact, but you don't smell like one of us either. What are you?" Nico fidgeted, E.J.'s sense of smell was uncomfortably acute, Nico wondered what else it could tell.

"Well I'm only half human." Nico admitted. "I'm a Demi-God, my mother was human, my father is Hades the Greek good of the underworld." Nico resisted the urge to rub the back of his neck awkwardly, he needed to keep his hands ready to fight.

"Interesting." E.J. sniffing the air again and moving a little closer to Nico. Nico took a step back. "So that's what Slenderman wants you for? He wants to know how you're different from humans?"

"I suppose." Nico said stepping back uncomfortably. "He said he had never seen a power that worked quite like mine so he wanted to help me learn more about them."

"Hmm." E.J. sounded still moving forwards, Nico struggled between a desire to look behind him to make sure E.J. didn't back him into a wall and not wanting to look away from him. "I wonder if you're any different on the inside." E.J.'s eye sockets were angled towards Nico's abdomen hungrily, so whatever the organs he ate came from that area. "I wonder if you taste any different."

"Well I wouldn't know, I mean I've tasted my own blood but I have nothing to compare it to." Nico said trying to sound calmer than he was, he succeeded though 'calmer than he was' still meant he sounded pretty freaked out.

"I do." E.J. said and Nico noticed E.J.'s mask shift up as he smiled and lunged at Nico.


	5. Dinner

Nico dodged out of the way hitting the wall immediately, gods damn it he should have taken a moment to look behind him. E.J. approached slowly thinking that Nico was trapped, Nico's breath came in short bursts now because of the smell, ten times stronger now that E.J. was so close. Nico doubted any of the others would come to his aid, he needed to show E.J that he could fight for himself, or he would just be back next time Nico was on his own. With that in mind Nico tried to stay calm as his mind scrabbled for a plan. He then noticed the glint of something metal, a scalpel, in E.J.'s hand.

It turned out Nico didn't have to plan, as soon as E.J. lunged again Nico's body took over, instinct and training moving his limbs on their own. Nico dropped to the floor to avoid the blade and kicked out at E.J's legs, missing the knee but making a solid connection with the shin. Nico heard a grunt and E.J. stumbled back a couple paces, giving Nico the room he needed to roll to the side farther away from E.J.. Nico leapt to his feet and stepped away from the wall so it was no longer at his back.

E.J. made a small snarling, gurgling noise but seemed hesitant to attack Nico again, Nico glared back. He knew he could be quite scary when he wanted to be and right now he did, he relaxed the hold he kept on his power most of the time. The room darkened slightly moving out from Nico's body, and everything seemed colder. His eyes blackened with anger, sadness, and the feeling of death that made most people feel uncomfortable around him intensified.

"No matter how tough you believe you are you are still just a mortal. Do you really want to pick a fight with someone who is half God?" Nico asked coldly, staring at E.J. with dead eyes. E.J. took a involuntary step back, hesitated, then took another.

"Maybe not." He said nodding slightly. "I can see now why Slenderman is so interested in you, I think I too would like to study your powers from the outside for a while. Though, I can't promise I won't try to dissect you again at a later date." Nico couldn't tell if E.J. was joking or not, but he had the feeling he wasn't. It didn't matter for now though.

"It was nice to meet you." Nico said crossing the room to the doorway where Masky and Hoody still lingered.

"It's almost supper time, so I'm sure I'll see you again soon." E.J. said turning back to his cleaning. Nico made himself wait until he was out of the room and a little ways down the hall before he slumped against the wall. He was exhausted, he had thought he had used the last of his power to summon the cat for Slenderman, but then instinct and desperation had made him call on more and now he felt empty.

"Are you alright?" Masky asked as Nico breathed deeply straightening his back against the flat wood of the wall.

"I've used more power today than I knew I had." Nico said softly frowning. "I'm sure in the long run it will help me have access to more, but right now I feel empty, I don't know if I've ever felt quite this bad before." Nico knew he hadn't but very little of that actually had to do with his power being gone, so he didn't mention it.

"Oh." Masky said shifting awkwardly, neither he or Hoody had any powers at all that Nico knew of, so he supposed they wouldn't understand, it didn't matter.

"Where did Toby go?" Nico asked suddenly noticing the twitching boys absence, he had seemed pretty keen on following them around earlier why would he have left. Masky and Hoody both shifted awkwardly and exchanged a look through their masks.

"Well you know Toby's crazy... he has voices in his head, they're the ones who tell him to kill. Most of the time he gets along with them... they can sort of compromise, and Toby sort of functions in his level of insanity. but sometimes he kinda… goes sane I suppose? He starts trying to fight the voices in his head and get back to who he was before his sister died. He stops functioning for a bit while that happens for a bit until he gives up. and he and the voices go back to co-existing."

"That's what was happening when he was muttering at the wall earlier, so he's had to go back to his room till that's over. Sally's gone with him because if Toby was left alone when he's like this he'd probably bite his hands off."

It was Nico's turn to "oh" awkwardly, so Toby hadn't been exaggerating at all when he had said that he was insane. Nico could understand why he supposed, if what Masky had described was the alternative, insanity would be a much more enjoyable state. "Does that happen to anyone else here?" Nico asked wondering if it was a common occurrence, but Hoody shook his head.

"No, the rest of us are pretty stable in our levels of sanity." Masky expanded on Hoody's denial. "Hoody is pretty sane, by societies standards, most of the time and L.J. and Jeff are completely insane all the time, the rest of us fall somewhere in the middle." So that was why Hoody stuttered all the time, even as one of them it could be scary for a sane person to live with a bunch of insane murderers.

"So why do you stay?" Nico asked Hoody, too tired to think about if it was a rude question. As an answer Hoody quickly grabbed hold of Masky's arm, tightly as if he expected someone to try and separate them. Nico nodded, that was a pretty clear answer, Hoody and Masky were best friends, inseparable even, and as the more bold of the two Masky chose where they went, Hoody just followed. "Fair enough." Nico said blandly, Hoody relaxed a little and let go of Masky's arm, slipping his own through the crack of Masky's instead so their arms were linked.

Nico looked away, their easy affection was hard to watch. He and his sister used to share affection like that, but that had stopped even before her death when she had joined the hunters of Artemis. Nico took another deep breath biting the inside of his lip, now was not the time to think about that, now was not the time to cry. Nico pushed himself away from that wall, pushing down his exhaustion and emotion in the same action.

"Is there anyone else I should meet?" He asked wanting a distraction "Someone I won't need to use my powers to impress? I won't be able to use them again until I've slept."

"No, if you can't defend yourself properly right now it would be better if you met Jeff at dinner, where there's a 'no fighting rule" Nico wasn't sure if he was relieved or not. He wanted a distraction but he also didn't feel up to meeting anyone else. He wondered how social he would be expected to be at the meal, most of the creepypastas didn't seem like very social creatures but people were sometimes very different in groups than on their own.

"How long till dinner then?" Nico asked.

"We don't know." Masky said shrugging. "Actually Slenderman is probably cooking tonight since we're showing you around, E.J.'s not allowed to cook for the group and Jeff's grounded. We should go help?" Masky glanced Hoody. Hoody nodded. "Do you want to come help Nico, or do you want to go back to your room? It won't be long before dinner but you might be able to have a short rest." A rest sounded good but Nico knew from experience he wouldn't actually manage it, he couldn't sleep until he was about to pass out now, and he didn't want to be alone.

"I'll help." Nico decided trying not to look to tired, though he knew he had bags under his eyes and probably looked like death.

"A-are you s-sure?" Hoody asked cautiously.

"Yes I'm sure." Nico said. Hoody nodded and started to lead the way, Masky and Nico followed.

The kitchen was at the back of the house and looked newer than the rest of the house though that didn't mean much. All it meant was that the stove seemed to run on electricity rather than wood, and it had a fridge, though both looked like they were probably some of the first models ever produced. The kitchen was clean though and large with a rack of pots and pans hanging in the middle of the room above a stationary island with a few old metal stools around it.

Standing by the stove, looking very out of place, was Slenderman. He had to bend slightly to fit in the room even though the ceiling was quite high, Nico was sure Slenderman would have had to teleport in because he wouldn't have fit through the door. There were two very large pots on the stove and the room smelled like tomato sauce, chasing the smell of E.J.'s office out of Nico's nose. Slenderman turned towards them, Nico blinked in surprise to see that he was wearing an apron with a checkered pattern on it, of course Slender wouldn't want to get his suit dirty.

"Hello sir, is there anything we can do to help?" Masky asked politely unthreading his arm from Hoodies and clasping his hands behind his back.

_"I think not children." _Slenderman said waving a wooden spoon he was holding at them before returning to stirring the sauce. "_The pasta is almost finished, though I suppose you could set the table if you wish."_

"Alright." Masky said going over to a cupboard and taking outfour plates which he handed to Nico, before taking five himself. "Will you get cutlery Hoody?" Masky asked, Hoody nodded already halfway to a drawer in the island which he opened and started pulling knives and forks out of. "Do you use a spoon to eat pasta Nico? E.J. and Hoody do."

"No." Nico said confused, no one in his family had ever used spoons when eating pasta. Wouldn't the noodles just fall off the spoon? That didn't seem very effective. He shrugged it off and followed Masky out of the kitchen through a different door than they had come in, and into a large dining room. It was richly furnished with a long wooden table and cushioned straight backed chairs that must have been quite hard to keep clean, they were setting nine places today but it looked like the table could have sat twice that.

He noticed that Masky and Hoody didn't set the place at the head of the table, only the sides, Nico didn't understand why but he followed their example and left it bare. Just as they finished Slenderman walked in carrying four bowls, two of pasta carried in his hands, and two of sauce carried carefully in his tentacles. He put them down delicately at either end of the set places so that all at the meal could be served faster.

_"Alright, dinner is ready." _Slenderman said and this time it echoed in Nico's head in a way that made him sure the call reached beyond him and to everyone else in the house. Hoody and Masky sat down leaving a space between them for Nico, which he took gratefully knowing that they would much rather sit next to each other and were doing this for his comfort. Nico's suspicions about the call were confirmed when people began to trickle into the room, E.J. came first then Sally.

"I've wrapped Toby's hands so he can't bite them or claw himself, but he won't be down for dinner." Sally announced skipping over to the table, pouting at Hoody for having the seat next to Nico, and then climbing up on the chair next to Hoody. BEN came in next grumbling something about an interrupted game, L.J. came in with Smiling Dog on his heals who slipped under the table quickly to wait for any dropped food scraps.

There were two empty spots now, not counting the unset place at the head of the table, one of them must have been for Toby who wasn't coming, and the other must be for Jeff. Jeff wondered in a few minutes after L.J. and after Slenderman had taken his place at the head of the table. Of course he couldn't eat since he didn't have a mouth so why would he need a plate? Everyone else had started serving themselves. Nico couldn't help but be taken aback by Jeff's appearance, the black rimmed eyes, burnt white skin, black hair and scarred red smile were quite a disconcerting combination.

Jeff scowled around the room and stormed over to a seat across from Nico, one down between L.J. and BEN. He didn't notice Nico at first, staring down at his plate angrily, and then getting himself a serving of pasta. Nico shrugged, Jeff would notice when he noticed. Nico had only just realized how much of the emptiness he had been feeling was hunger so he wanted to focus on his dinner as well. It was really good, it almost could have passed for Italian, though not quite, Nico couldn't help but wonder where a creature who couldn't eat had learned to cook but not enough to ask.

"Who are you?" Nico sighed, so Jeff had noticed he was there. Nico looked up at Jeff who was staring with wide unblinking eyes.

"My name is Nico." Nico said politely. "It's nice to meet you, Jeff."

"Huh" Jeff said fairly unconcerned. "And what are you doing here?"

"Well I'm a Demi-god, son of a mortal and Hades the Greek god of death and the underworld. Slenderman wants to know more about how the power I got from my father works. And I don't have anywhere else I'd rather go." Nico explained easily. Jeff raised an eyebrow skeptically.

_"It is true Jeffry, he has showed me a sample of his power, it is not much now but I believe with some nurturing it shall become great. Besides I believe he will fit in well here." _Slenderman's comment was directed at Jeff but everyone else could hear as well. _"At the moment he is quite tired though Jeffry so I would thank you to leave any fights you wish to start until tomorrow." _Jeff scowled and looked down, obviously not willing to disobey Slenderman, but not happy about it. Nico sighed, so tomorrow there would be more fighting, fantastic.


	6. Movie night

Both Hoody and Masky had taken of their masks during the meal and left them off when it was over, Nico found it hard to adjust to. He could recognize their masks to their names, but found it a lot more difficult to adjust to recognizing them by their actual faces. Masky had brown hair and side burns, blue eyes, a fine boned nose, and a mouth on the wide side of proportionate. Hoody's hair was darker, dark brown, maybe black, he was clean-shaven with brown eyes, finer brows, and a smaller mouth.

"Can we play hide and seek now?" Sally asked as soon as everyone was done eating, looking back and forth between Hoody and Masky expectantly.

"Of course we can." Masky said after a glance at Hoody. "You'll have to give me and Hoody a moment first though, I need to take my meds and he needs to take out his contacts, you know that Sal." Sally was up from her chair and did a small impatient sort of dance.

"Alright but hurry please? I wanna play! Nico you'll still play hide and seek with us, won't you?" She hopped over to him and pulled on his sleeve as Hoody and Masky got up and left the room. Nico might have felt a bit vulnerable without them, but Slenderman and Sally were still there, they made him feel a bit better.

"Of course I will Sally." Nico said smiling slightly. "I said I would, didn't I?"

"Yay!" Sally said before running over to E.J. demanding that she should be allowed to feed the dog as he was getting Smiling Dog's food. Slenderman got up and started clearing the table, Nico got up to help. He doubted Slenderman needed help, but it seemed like the polite thing to do so Nico did it.

_"Jeffry." _Slenderman called. Nico looked behind him to see Jeff trying to sneak out of the dining room. _"It is your turn to do the dishes tonight, Jeffry, had you forgotten?" _Slenderman said, a cold edge creeping into his mental voice.

"Yes, I guess I must have." Jeff said scowling and storming into the kitchen. Nico got out of the way. "Why can't the new kid do them?" Jeff asked. Nico scowled, he wouldn't have minded doing the dishes very much but the way Jeff called him a kid annoyed Nico.

_"Because he is new Jeffry." _Slenderman said in the same cool tone _"Besides, he offered his help in the preparation of the meal and set the table along with Masky and Hoody. Which is more than you ever offer of your own accord, Jeffry." _Jeff scowled at both Nico and Slenderman, but stormed over to the sink and started running hot water, so at least he was intending to do them. Nico slipped back out of the kitchen and into the dining room to avoid Jeff.

Sally was just making Smiling Dog sit for his food, his long dog tongue lolling over his human teeth as he panted. When Sally put the dish down Smile leapt forward like any other dog. So far Nico had been unable to tell what had earned Smiling Dog his place here besides his teeth, maybe that was all it was. After a few more minutes Masky and Hoody came back. Masky was a little more wobbly than he had been and giggled a little, maybe the pills took a while to balance, and Hoody was wearing thin framed glasses.

"Are you ready to play now?" Sally asked practically jumping on Hoody who made a small oof noise, but didn't protest.

"Yep." Masky said smiling. "Why don't I be it first? Sally, I think you should help Nico hide before you find one for yourself okay? He doesn't know the house very well yet."

"Okay!" Sally said grasping Nico's hand tightly.

"Okay who else is playing?" Masky said and turned, surveying the room. L.J. put up his hand and surprisingly so did BEN. "Okay, so L.J. no invisibility unless Sally is it, BEN no hiding inside of electronics." Both BEN and L.J. grumbled a little but nodded. "Okay I'll start counting now then, everyone scatter." Masky closed his eyes and started counting. Nico could hear the smile in his voice as everyone hurried out of the room. Sally dragged Nico out of the room and down the hall looking around obviously thinking hard about where to put him.

"There are tons of secret passages around but Hoody and Masky know them better than anyone so no use hiding there." She mused aloud. "Most of my hiding spots are too big for you. Hmm." She ended up hiding him under the bed in L.J.'s room after promising Nico that he wouldn't mind if it was for the game. Besides no one hid in their own rooms so L.J. wouldn't find him there, Nico didn't mind, it was dark under the bed he could blend in well there.

"Ready or not here I come!" Nico heard Masky shout from downstairs. He hoped Sally had had time to find a hiding spot of her own after helping him. Nico settled himself to wait, he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. They passed the room he was hiding in and seemed to go up until they were right above him, then two pairs of footsteps coming down, he was willing to bet that was Masky finding Hoody right away.

Nico was found third, after L.J. who was too big to find anywhere good to hide. Hoody had been found first just as Nico had suspected. Nico was really quite glad to be found though, it was dusty under the bed and uncomfortable. Besides looking for the others was a good way to learn a bit more about the house. By the end of three rounds of hide seek, the second one in which Hoody was it, the third Sally was, Nico knew his way around much better. By that time it was probably about 8:30 and Sally was starting to rub her eyes a bit and whine like most when they're getting tired.

"Sal, I think it might be time for you to go to bed soon." Masky said smiling at her gently.

"No." Sally said pouting. "I don't wanna go to bed." She hid behind Hoody, who turned to her and kneeled down to her level.

"W-why don't we watch a sh-show before you have to go to b-bed." He suggested calmly. "I can b-brush your hair if you like, and b-braid it, that always helps you c-calm down." Sally seemed to think about it for a moment then nodded and Hoody smiled.

"Good idea Hoody." Masky said grinning. "What do you want to watch Sal?"

"Umm Winx?" Nico had no idea what that was but BEN groaned.

"I'm going to be the one who has to find it online aren't I?" He said scowling and Laughing Jack started cackling. "Ya ya laugh away, Laughing Jerk." BEN said frowning at L.J.

"Whatever, you're the one who has to watch a fairy show." L.J. said in his screechy voice still cackling. "I'm going to go terrorize some parents." He wondered away. Sally pouted at BEN.

"Fine, fine I'll go find your stupid show." BEN said stomping off.

"We might as well go with BEN." Masky told Nico. "Sally's going to drag Hoody to get whatever brush she wants him to use, ribbons too probably." Nico glanced at the two and saw that Sally indeed had Hoody's hand in hers and was pulling him. "Unless you'd rather just go back to your room and read or whatever." Masky said shrugging.

"No I'll come along, though I have no clue what 'Winx' is." Nico said walking beside Masky as they followed BEN.

"It's just this kids show about a team of magic fairy's. I don't really understand it, but Sal loves it so sometimes we end up watching it with her." Masky shrugged and Nico nodded. "She'll only watch one episode before she goes to bed though so we can watch something else afterwards."

"It doesn't really matter to me, I haven't seen any movies or shows that I remember." Nico said unconcernedly as they entered a living room with a large screen that BEN was already disappearing into. Images started to flick across the screen as he messed with it. Masky froze and Nico walked right passed him. "What?"

"You've never seen any tv?" Masky asked his eyes wide. Was it that strange? Nico shook his head staring at Masky curiously. "Wow you have some catching up to do." Masky said then looked at the tv screen. "BEN how do you feel about watching the Breakfast Club after Sal goes to bed? I know you probably wanted to watch Matrix or something but I feel like Nico should start with the Breakfast Club since it's a classic.

"WHATEVER" popped up in text on the computer screen and then flicked to the beginning of a show which paused immediately. "PRESS PLAY WHEN SALLY GETS HERE. I'M GOING TO GO HACK SOMETHING." The text read then disappeared.

"Okay, he don't like this show so he almost never stays around to watch it. You said you were tired earlier will you be able to stay awake through the movie? If not we might as well wait till tomorrow to watch Breakfast Club and let BEN choose the movie." Nico had been tired, but he always got a bit of a second wind when the sun went down.

"I think I'll be able to stay awake if I'm interested in it." Nico said crossing his arms and going over to sit on the couch in front of the tv or computer, Nico wasn't sure which.

"Oh you will be it's a great movie. Not horror or anything really fun but a classic." Masky said sitting in one of the armchairs on either side of the couch. Then jumped up again. "Actually Slenderman might like to watch Breakfast Club with us if I tell him it's a classic. If Sally comes before I get back tell her to go ahead with the show without me, it's not like I'm a huge fan of it either." Nico nodded and Masky left the room.

Nico sighed and leaned back against the stuffed back of the couch, it was quiet, this was the first time he was alone in a room besides his own bedroom. It felt already like he had been there three days already. One day of just wandering around in the woods like he had been that morning, one day of fighting Toby and being dragged back here, accepted by Slenderman and introduced to everyone, then a day of the game of tag and now the movies. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, he wasn't sleepy but he was very tired, it was a good thing they were just going to watch things. That wouldn't require any effort or much attention, he could do that.

"Where did Masky go?" Sally's voice came from behind him, Nico twisted to look at her with Hoody behind.

"He went to go looking for Slenderman, but he said to go ahead with the show." Nico told her.

"Okay." She said bouncing over to the couch but not sitting down. Hoody went and hit play on the show before coming back to sit next to Nico on the couch. Sally crawled up into his lap as she watched the introduction to the show and sang along to the theme song with rapt attention. Nico quickly understood why almost everyone else had left, this show was weird. It was easier to watch Hoody gently brushing out Sally's hair until it was completely smooth, then braiding it down her back in two pigtails. He tied it expertly with two pink ribbons, Nico wondered how many times they performed this ritual. By the time the show was over Sally's hair was done and she was leaning back against Hoody happily clutching her bear.

"T-time for bed Sal." Hoody said smiling down at her.

"Noooo." Sally protested sleepily but she wrapped her arms around Hoody's neck and let him lift her up so he could carry her to bed. Hoody chuckled as Sally made another small complaining noise as she rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

"IS IT SAFE TO COME BACK NOW?" A text box appeared on the screen a few minutes after the show had ended.

"Ya it's safe, Hoody is taking Sally to bed." Nico said

"OKAY GOOD, I GUESS MASKY WILL WANT ME TO LOOK UP BREAKFAST CLUB?"

"I guess so." Nico said shrugging. "Though he must be having a hard time finding Slenderman, he hasn't come back yet."

"THE PROXIES CAN ALWAYS FIND SLENDER, MASKY JUST DIDN'T WANT TO WATCH THE SHOW." As in on cue Masky came wandering back into the room, Slenderman ducking through the doorway after him and fitting himself into one of the armchairs, Masky crossing in front of the couch to sit in the other. The tv started flickering again and this time settled to beginning of the movie quickly, BEN then slipped out of the screen coming to sit on the couch between Nico and Slenderman.

"Now we're just waiting on Hoody and how long he'll take depends on how demanding Sally is." BEN said crossing his arm and leaning against the armrest, Masky nodded.

"She's usually not that bad when she gets to watch a show before bed. Besides she almost always goes to bed at nine and it's almost nine now." He pointed out, then everyone fell silent waiting for Hoody to come back. He took ten minutes, he shrugged apologetically, BEN sighed and got up touched the screen making it play. Hoody sat on the side of the couch closest to Masky.

Nico was in no danger of falling asleep through the movie, in fact he quite liked it. It wasn't overly dramatic or anything but the character development was great. It was easy to relate to as well, Nico was sure it would be even more relatable to people who actually remembered going to a school but he still enjoyed it. Nico noticed Masky kept glancing at Nico for his reactions rather than actually watching the movie. Nico did his best to react appropriately even though emotions weren't his strong point.

When the movie ended BEN was the first to leave, disappearing back into the screen and turning it off after him. Nico stretched and looked around at the others, noticing that Hoody had fallen asleep at some point during the movie and Masky was frowning at him slightly. Eventually he sighed and shrugged.

"So what did you think of it Nico?" Masky asked curiously.

"It was good, I liked it." Nico said nodding. "Would you mind if I went to bed now though? Hoody's not the only one who's tired." Hoody stirred at the sound of his name and opened his eyes, noticing the movie was over he grimaced apologetically and sat up.

"Of course not Nico. Have a good sleep and don't forget what we said about locking your door." Masky said getting up and helping Hoody up, Nico got up on his own, glad that Masky had reminded him because he had indeed forgotten that they had told him to lock his door.

"I won't. Goodnight to you as well." Nico said, giving Slenderman a small wave and then leaving to go to his bedroom. He found his way there fairly easily this time, as he went down the hall the skeleton cat he had summoned ran over to join him, it's small fleshless paws making a clicking noises on the wood floor. "Are you ready to go to sleep or are you planning to keep me up all night?" Nico asked the cat who stared up at him and made a prrrp noise, Nico sighed, either way he let the cat into his room remembering to lock the door and put a small stack of books in front of it that would tip over if anyone managed to unlock it and tried to open it.

He locked the window as well but left the curtain open, the moon was bright tonight and he liked it. When he lay down the cat immediately jumped up and curled up on his chest. Nico shifted it so he could roll onto his side, it made a protesting noise but then settled again quickly. Nico let out a deep breath emptying his lungs and then filling them again slowly, watching shadows dance along the walls calmly till his eyes slid closed. He was too tired to think right now and there was no point, what would happen would happen, now was time for sleep.


	7. Go Back to Sleep or Fight

Nico woke up in the middle of the night to the cat at the foot of his bed hissing like a demon.

"What the hell?" Nico mumbled shifting slightly to peak at the cat, he didn't want to move, he was still half asleep. Why did he have to be such a heavy sleeper, all the other demigods he knew woke up fully at the first sign of danger (Except the Hypnos kids of course) but not Nico. He had already registered that the cat was hissing, there was probably danger, but he was still too asleep to do more than contemplate the idea idle in the back of his mind.

"_Go back to sleep." _Nico jerked his elbow ramming back against the source of the voice. He heard an _oof _and a sharp pain sliced across his side as whatever, whoever, it was slid back. The pain woke Nico up fully, he rolled out of bed away from the person leaping to his feet while turning to see who it was with a snarl. Jeff was on his feet already lunging across the bed at Nico with a knife in hand.

Nico grabbed Jeff's extended arm and twisted the wrist harshly, he heard Jeff yelp but he didn't care. Nico was not a morning person, he hated being woken up, _Hated it_! Go back to sleep? Fuck that, like Nico would be able to sleep for the rest of the night now, and he was still so tired! He jerked Jeff across the bed, letting go of his arm so Jeff could crash to the floor without breaking it. Jeff was up again in a second slashing at Nico, Nico couldn't help but think Jeff was clumsy. Against an untrained mortal his moves might work, but against a trained demigod? Nico let out a chillingly dark chuckle as he easily slipped out of Jeff's reach.

"Honestly, Jeff, is that the best you can do?" Nico was not going to be nice to anyone who woke him up at an ungodly hour, like whatever time this was. He felt like he had only been asleep for minutes. "You're less of a challenge when I'm half asleep, than E.J. was when I was wide awake." Jeff snarled and attacked again, his movements were quicker now and ferocious but they were still poorly timed and ill thought out.

"Do you always attack people while they're asleep? I guess you must have to, you couldn't catch them while they were awake." Jeff spluttered furiously. Nico could feel warmth dripping down his side and knew he must be caught, but he was too full of adrenalin to notice the pain. While Nico was distracted by that realization Jeff barged in, Nico moving a moment too late and earning himself a long shallow cut on his shoulder.

"Ha, who can't catch you now!?" Jeff snarled triumphantly, seconds before the skeletal cat leapt onto him clawing at his face. Jeff gave a shriek and Masky and Hoody came rushing in. Jeff ripped the cat off of him and threw it against the wall, where it's bones scattered apart. This time it was Nico's time to yell and lunge at Jeff, but Hoody had grabbed him and pulled him back, Masky had a hold on Jeff.

Nico fell still almost immediately recognizing that the fight was over, but Jeff kept struggling until Masky got him in a chokehold. Hoody let go of Nico slowly and carefully, then went to help Masky keep hold of Jeff.

"What did Slender say about attacking Nico?!" Masky was yelling at Jeff.

"He said to wait till tomorrow, but technically it is tomorrow!" Jeff was trying to yell but the lack of air allowed through the choke hold made it come out as a wheeze. "It's one am, I gave him a whole extra hour!"

"I don't think Sir will see it the same way you do somehow, now get out!" Masky said shoving Jeff towards the door. "Go find someone else to kill while you can, because I have a feeling you're going to be grounded for a long time when we tell Slenderman about this in the morning." Jeff growled and stalked out of the room. Once he was gone Nico noticed that Jeff had managed to open the door without knocking over the stack of books he had put in front of it, he must have moved really slowly or something. Nico would have to get a bell.

"S-sorry about your c-cat." Hoody said softly to Nico as he groaned and rubbed his face.

"It's okay hang on a moment." Nico said walking over to the pile of cat bones across the room. Reaching out his hand he felt the residue of the soul in the bones mixed with the part of his own power that had strengthened it, and allowed it to manifest fully. Sighing Nico poured a bit more of the small amount of power he had managed to regain into the cats bones, watching as they quickly rearranged themselves into the cat laying on it's side. It got up quickly making a noise that was half way between an angry growl and a disgruntled mew before it began to make motions like it was cleaning itself, even though it didn't have a tongue.

"See, no harm done." Nico said yawning and running his hands back through his hair. "Except that I said some pretty rude things to Jeff, do I have to apologize? He's the one who woke me up, I hate getting woken up, particularly by people trying to kiiill me." He had yawned widely on the word Kill.

"I don't think so." Masky said laughing. "Jeff's almost definitely heard worse. I'm going to go follow him to make sure he leaves. Once he's gone you'll be safe to go back to sleep if you can." Nico nodded and Masky left the room, Hoody stayed kneeling down to pet the cat. It stared at him hard for a moment affronted, then seemed to decide he couldn't be bothered to move away and let Hoody pet it, Hoody chuckled. Nico sat down on the edge of his bed watching Hoody.

"I suppose I should give the cat a name since it can't tell me it's old one, and I seem to have decided I'm keeping it. Any ideas?" Nico asked Hoody, Hoody shrugged his expression mildly panicked at being asked. "It's okay." Nico said quickly. "Ummm, what do you think of Ira? I think I remember it meaning vigilant or something and it woke me up when Jeff came in." Hoody nodded with a small smile.

"Th-that's a pretty name." He agreed easily.

"Alright Ira it is." Nico said smiling at the cat who stared back at him blankly.

"Ira is what?" Masky asked walking back into the room. "Jeff has left the property by the way."

"Ira is the cat's new name." Nico answered. "Thanks."

"Huh that's a nice name." Masky said. "I'm going to go back to bed again now." He turned and left and after running his hand over Ira's spine one more time, Hoody got up and followed. Nico got up and followed Hoody to the door closing it and locking it after him, before going back to the bed and flopping down on his stomach. The cat lept up on the bed with him and curled up in the middle of his lower back, Nico didn't bother moving it.

He hugged a pillow, pulling it under him and burying his face in it with a long sigh. He hadn't thought he would be able to sleep again, but the reassuring weight of the cat on him, even without the warmth of life, was comforting and he felt himself relaxing. He hummed to himself softly, it was a lullaby in Italian that he couldn't remember where he knew it from, so he supposed it must be something his mother had sung to him as a child. Whatever it was it made him feel sane and he quickly fell back to sleep.

"Hey Masky hey Masky heyMaskyheyMaskyheyMasky." Nico could already hear Toby's voice drifting out the kitchen door as he walked through the dining room to enter, well it seemed like Toby was feeling better. When Nico got in the kitchen he caught sight of Masky sitting at the island with a cup of coffee and Toby poking his arm repeatedly saying 'hey Masky' again with each poke.

"I swear to God Toby, if you do that one more time I will dump this coffee over your head and just make myself a new cup." Masky said exasperatedly.

"Go ahead I won't feel it." Toby pointed out laughing. Masky sighed and passed his coffee to the hand that was not constantly being jolted my Toby's pokes in order to take a sip. Hoody noticed Nico's arrival and waved to him pointing questioningly to the coffee he was making. Nico shook his head, he had never really liked coffee, it was too bitter for his liking, Hoody shrugged and went back to pouring and fixing his own cup.

"Honestly, Toby, what do you even want!?" Masky asked putting his coffee down on the table harder than he needed to, sloshing a little over the sides.

"Why cant I have coffee too?" Toby asked pouting, the hole in his cheek ruining the effect.

"Because you have enough energy to last a lifetime without any caffeine or sugar! Just get yourself some orange juice or something! Get some for Nico to since it doesn't look like he's having coffee either, at least this time you won't be the only one besides Sally not drinking it." Toby kept pouting, but he only poked Masky once more before going to do what he suggested.

"If I can't have Coffee can we at least have waffles for breakfast." Toby asked sliding a glass of orange juice over to Nico who sat down on a stool next to Masky, Toby didn't sit down and stood near the island instead.

"You always want waffles, Toby." Masky said in a kind of patient exasperation that made Nico smile into his orange juice.

"Fine pancakes then." Toby said stubbornly.

"No you drown them in syrup and that stuff is all sugar. Didn't I just finish saying you didn't need any sugar?" Nico felt a small pang, Percy did the same thing with his pancakes, he could see Percy and Annabeth having an argument just like this. He was distracted by his thoughts when Toby put down his juice suddenly so he could twitch violently without spilling it.

"I know I don't need it, but I want it." Toby wined pouting .

"Nico do you l-like pancakes?" Hoody asked Nico. Nico jolted slightly at being brought into the conversation but nodded, it had been a while since he had had pancakes and he did like them.

"F-fine, I'll make us all p-pancakes Toby, j-just leave Masky alone. It's too early f-for this." Hoody started getting out ingredients for pancakes and Toby grinned.

"Okay!" he said sliding onto one of the last two empty bar stools by the island. His leg quickly began shaking violently and he leaned back away from the table to keep his own shaking from vibrating the table.

"How do you always have so much energy?" Nico said leaning his head against the cool counter. His head was foggy and sore, so the coolness of the table felt great. He wished he had been able to sleep longer, but when he had woken up he had felt like he'd been awake for hours and he knew there was no way he would be able to get back to sleep no matter how hard he had tried. Besides the sun was up, not high, it was probably around six, but up enough to shine obnoxiously through his window.

"Don't know!" Toby said in a sing-song voice. "Just -heh –do!" he made a noise as he gave a shudder. "By the way, will you want to join us in practicing fighting later? We've never practiced with anyone who fights with a sword before, I wanna try fighting you again when I'm not actually trying to kill you." Toby laughed and Nico gave a small smile.

"I guess I might as well, aside from yesterday I haven't practiced against anyone with axes. Plenty of knifes, swords and spears, but no axes. I'm sure it will be interesting." Nico was starting to wake up a little bit and the smell of pancakes frying was helping a lot, he was hungry. Masky got up and took plates out of a cupboard, putting them next to Hoody so he could put the pancakes on them when they were done. He took down a cutting board and a knife from the rack above the island, got some fruit out of the fridge and started cutting it up to put on the pancakes, Nico thought about offering to help but Toby was still chattering at him.

"I wonder if any tricks will be compatible, I mean there are techniques to fighting with any weapon right? I wonder if I'd be able to take some of the ones you use with your sword or if you could take any of the ones I use with my axes."

"I don't know." Nico said thinking about it. "It's easier to translate techniques between more similar weapons like knives and swords. What sort of weapons do you two use?" Nico asked turning to Hoody and Masky.

"We don't fight much but we use knives and guns when we have to." Masky said answering for both of them as Nico had expected he would. "I usually use knives because they're quieter, Hoody prefers guns because you don't have to be so close... you don't see as much." Both Hoody and Nico grimaced slightly, he could understand that, there were certainly some deaths he would have rather been far away from, and that was with monsters. It would be even worse with humans.

"Pffff." Sounded Toby from next to Nico reaching across to steal half a strawberry from the cutting board and nearly getting one of his fingers sliced off in the process. "I'll never understand that, I mean I'm not like 'the closer the better' like Jeff but why does it matter how far away we are? We're still the ones that kill them." Hoody and Masky shrugged, Nico didn't know how to react, so he didn't react, keeping his face blank and his body language unreadable.

"How many pancakes do you want Nico?" Masky asked changing the subject.

'Three?" Nico said shrugging, normally he would only have two but he was hungry this morning.

"Okay." Hoody answered flipping the pancakes that were in the pan onto a plate and pouring some fresh batter into the pan. Masky took the plate and slid it across to Nico. Toby jumped up from his chair and pulled a bottle of syrup from a cupboard on the opposite side of the room from the one that held plates.

Masky got his pancakes next, three of them like Nico, he half expected Toby to complain that Masky got his first but Toby didn't seem to mind. He was swinging his legs like a three year old now and it seemed to keep the shaking at bay so he could lean against the counter now with minimal difficulties. When Hoody finally passed Toby a plate there were at least six pancakes on it, the food in Nico's mouth kept it from dropping open. Toby frowned at them and opened his mouth to say something but Masky interrupted him.

"We know you can eat more than six but six is more than enough, let Hoody eat." Toby frowned at Masky, but didn't argue, grabbing the syrup bottle and beginning to pour more syrup than seemed at all necessary over his pancakes.

"Honestly Toby, that is too much sugar!" Masky snapped after a moment "they're swimming in syrup they'll get all soggy!"

"Pff I like swimming and so do my pancakes!" Toby laughed back. "Hey we should go swimming later! It looks like it's going to be a warm day and there's not that much of summer left, we should take advantage of it!" Nico felt a small twist in his stomach, he could picture Annabeth and Percy having the same argument that Masky and Toby had just had. He looked away, shoving another bite of pancake into his mouth and chewing slowly as Toby began to gulp down his overly sweet pancakes.

Despite the different times they had gotten their food and how much more Toby had to eat than the rest of them, they all finished at about the same time. Hoody was the last to finish, Nico and Masky stayed sitting with him as he finished up, but Toby jumped up and bolted off as soon as he was done. Masky scowled after him, gathering up Toby's plate as well as his own and crossing to the sink, Nico took his own and Hoody's once he was done and helped Masky with dishes.

"Where did Toby go?" Nico asked curiously

"Probably to gather up all the weapons we'll need and find a good practice spot. He'll want to get started as soon as we leave the house so make sure you don't go until you're ready. We're going to sit for a moment because now that I've eaten I need to take my pill." Nico nodded after he finished drying the last plate and had put it away he refilled his glass with orange juice, then went back to his seat next to Masky who was making a face having just swallowed the pill and Hoody who was patting Masky on the back.

Nico drank his glass of orange juice a lot more quickly this time, Hoody sipped a glass of water and Masky chugged a glass of water to force the pill (that apparently had got stuck in his throat) down. Once all three of them were done their drinks they went out the back door of the house which was closer. Sure enough Toby was there dancing with impatience. As soon as he saw them he grabbed Nico and Masky by the arm and dragged them away leaving Hoody to jog behind them into what promised to be an action packed day.


End file.
